A man jumps over a ditch recently dug to lay cables in Gulu, a city some 200 miles north of Kampala, Uganda’s capital. Facebook, in partnership with local telecoms, has laid nearly 500 miles of fiber-optic cables in the region.

Facebook Pushes Into Africa

Social media giant helps connect remote parts of Uganda to internet, after past efforts to widen access in developing world drew criticism

A man jumps over a ditch recently dug to lay cables in Gulu, a city some 200 miles north of Kampala, Uganda’s capital. Facebook, in partnership with local telecoms, has laid nearly 500 miles of fiber-optic cables in the region.

GULU, Uganda—A prominent red sign welcoming visitors to this remote and dusty agricultural city makes the announcement in capital letters: “This is now a 4G zone.”

That is thanks in part to Facebook Inc., which, along with Indian telecom giant Bharti Airtel Ltd.’s Ugandan unit and Mauritius-based Bandwidth & Cloud Services Group, laid nearly 500 miles of fiber-optic cable across the isolated northwest of this East African nation. The project, begun in early 2017 and completed at the end of last year, has expanded the...